vegan recipes + plant-based living

How to Make Chickpea Flour

August 17, 2015

Regardless of the season, I pile chickpeas up on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven with smoked paprika and turmeric. I’m used to baking them or pureeing them into hummus. A few months ago, I picked up chickpea and fava flour to use in my cookies at home and really like the results. I regularly use chickpea flour in my chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, which gives them the chewy texture that I’m always after when it comes to making cookies. There are some great brands out there selling chickpea four, including my personal favorite Bob’s Red Mill Garbanzo & Fava Flour. I thought it would be nice to try to make chickpea flour at home.

My general cooking philosophy is eat plants, a lot of them. Eat what tastes good and helps your mind feel calm and your body feel energized. Sometimes, this means indulging in cake and morning pastries, while other times it means diving head first into a green smoothie or salad. It depends on the day. Regardless of what I’m eating, I try to stay curious about nutrition. I try to diversify the vegetables I’m eating with seasonal ingredients as well as different grains.

Most people are familiar with chickpeas because everyone loves falafel, but their nutlike flavor makes them a great addition to your baked goods, from cookies to bread. In The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, Sheldon Margen, M.D. writes that chickpeas have at least 9 grams of protein, 3 milligrams of iron, and 49 milligrams of calcium per serving size. Incorporating chickpea flour in your baked goods is a great way to sneak in a little more nutrition and reduce the amount of gluten in your diet.

Chickpea flour can easily be prepared at home using dried chickpeas and your food processor or blender. Once you’ve made a fresh batch of chickpea flour, then you can try your hand at some amazing recipes. I especially love these chickpea parathas from A Brown Table and these versatile tartlet shells from Green Kitchen Stories.

Shopping & Storing

When shopping for dried chickpeas, make sure that you inspect the legumes before putting them in your basket. If the chickpeas are in a box or bag, then you’ll want to check to see if there is any damage. The chickpeas should be brightly colored without any insect damage. The easiest way to find insect damage is to look for small pinholes in the surface of the chickpeas. If the legumes are cracked or broken, then you may want to look for another box or bag. If you can’t find dried chickpeas in a bag, then I would suggest looking at the bulk section in your local health food store. You can store chickpeas in an airtight container for up to a year. Make sure that you keep the beans away from moisture.

How to Make Chickpea Flour

Making chickpea flour is as simple as loading a cup of dried chickpeas into your blender or food processor and turning it on full speed. It takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes to fully process the chickpeas. I was left with a small amount of coarse chickpeas after processing, so I simply returned them to the blender and started over. I recommend doing this one cup at a time so you don’t exhaust or burn out your food processor or blender. After done blending the chickpeas, you’ll find that 1 cup of chickpeas yields about 1 ¼ cup of chickpea flour, or 150g.

Add 1 cup of chickpeas to a food processor or blender.

Pulse until smooth and use a sieve to filter chickpea flour into a large bowl.